Villamagna is the medieval name for the site

Villa Magna is the ancient name of a large imperial Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 villa near the modern town of Anagni

Anagni

Anagni is an ancient town and comune in Latium, central Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome. It is a historical center in Ciociaria.-Geography:...

, in Lazio, central Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The site lies in the Valle del Sacco

Valle del Sacco

Valle Latina or Sacco Valley is a valley of Ciociaria in the Province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy.It is situated between the mountain ranges of Monti Ernici and Monti Lepini and is traversed by the river Sacco. The valley’s principal city is Frosinone....

 some 65 km south of Rome, at the foot of the Monti Lepini

Monti Lepini

The Monti Lepini are a mountain range which belongs to the Anti-Apennines of the Lazio region of central Italy, between the two provinces of Latina and Rome....

, directly under the peak known as Monte Giuliano. The toponym 'Villamagna' remains attached to the site, attesting to the local memory of the imperial villa and its successive occupation as a monastery and lay community.

Ancient era

The villa was probably originally constructed in the second century. In AD 144-145, at the age of 23, future emperor Marcus Aurelius visited the villa where his adoptive father Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...

 was staying. In letters to his tutor, Fronto, he describes two days spent there:
After the death of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius the property remained in imperial hands. An inscription, now preserved at the Cathedral of Anagni, attests to Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...

's paving of a road leading from Anagni to the villa in 207

207

Year 207 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Severus...

. It remains to be determined how late the property remained in imperial hands after this moment in the early third century.

The site of the villa today shows little of its former splendour, though excavations are bringing to light the vast quantities of marble, mosaic and fresco which once decorated it. The remains visible above ground, covering at least a dozen hectares, consist of three ranges of cisterns fed by an aqueduct which probably leads from a spring at the base of the wooded hill, a range of substructures (underlying a nineteenth-century casale) which were the basis villae for some part of the ancient villa, and various traces of substructures on the long ridge running down from the casale towards the road.

Middle Ages

The earliest document attesting to the monastery dates from the tenth century and describes the foundation of the monastery by three nobles from Anagni. A series of very interesting charters and trials from the eleventh through thirteenth century speak to a small rural monastery with properties in the area of the original fundus, which despite its meagre size and income managed to become embroiled in regional and papal politics of the central Middle Ages, culminating in the suppression of the monastery in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII. After the death of the monastery, the village remained at least for a little while, however, as it is referred to as a castrum in 1301 and 1333, and a castrum dirutum in 1478. The castrum walls and church are still standing today.

Current research

Since 2006, the site and its occupation in the Roman and medieval period are the focus of an international interdisciplinary project, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Mediterranean Section), the British School at Rome

British School at Rome

The British School at Rome was established in 1901 and granted a Royal Charter in 1912 as an educational institute in the fields of archaeology, literature, music, and history of Rome and Italy of every period, and for the study of the fine arts and architecture...

, and the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici del Lazio, with core funding from the 1984 Foundation, the Comune of Anagni and the BancAnagni Credito Cooperativo. The international project is directed by Elizabeth Fentress; with co-directors Andrew Wallace Hadrill (BSR) and Sandra Gatti (SBAL). Five years of research, conducted using remote sensing survey, open area excavation, field survey, and topographic survey conducted in collaboration with the Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerca Scientifica (CNRS) have revealed the majority of the plan of the Roman buildings, a spectacular wine-making/dining room complex (probably the same room described by Marcus Aurelius in his letter), what appears to be a staff quarter of the villa, a winery of the sixth century. an early medieval village and a complex, long-lived church and cemetery around the monastic church of S. Pietro in Villamagna.

External links

• The website of the excavation project
• the preliminary reports of the site from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 at FastiOnline

Sources

• M. Mazzolani, Anagnia (Forma Italiae, Regio I, vol. 6) (Rome, 1969).
• E. De Minicis, “Il monastero di Villamagna e il suo territorio nell’alto medioevo", in Bollettino dell’Istituto di storia e di arte del Lazio meridionale 11 (1979–1982), pp. 59–75.
• A. Scarpignato, "Villamagna dalla metà del secolo XII e i suoi rapporti con gli abitanti di Sgurgola e Gorga", in Bollettino dell’Istituto di storia e di arte del Lazio meridionale 11 (1979–1982), pp. 77–91.
• R. Motta, “Decadenza del monastero di Villamagna dalla fine del XIII secolo", in Bollettino dell’Istituto di storia e di arte del Lazio meridionale 11 (1979–1982), pp. 93–103.
• Monasticon Italiae. I. Roma e Lazio, ed. F. Caraffa (Cesena, 1981), pp. 122–3, n. 28.
• S. Carocci, "Ricerche e fonti sui poteri signorili nel Lazio meridionale nella prima metà del XIII secolo: Villamagna e Civitella", in Il sud del Patrimonium Sancti Petri al confine del Regnum nei primi trent’anni del Duecento. Due realtà a confronto, Atti delle giornate di studi, Ferentino 28-29-30 ottobre 1994 (Rome, 1997), pp. 112–44.
• C. D. Flascassovitti, Le Pergamene del Monastero di S. Pietro di Villamagna (976-1237) (Lecce, 1994).
• M. De Meo, "S. Pietro di Villamagna presso Anagni: una villa romana si trasforma in abbazia", Quaderni di architettura e restauro, 2 (Rome, 1998).
• G. Giammaria, ed. "Villamagna", Monumenti di Anagni 3 (Anagni, 1999).
• E. Fentress, S. Gatti, C. Goodson, S. Hay, A. Kuttner, M. Maiuro, "Excavations at Villa Magna", Fasti Online Documents & Research: 68 http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2006-68.pdf
• E. Fentress, C. Fenwick, C. Goodson, S. Hay, M. Maiuro, "Excavations at Villa Magna", Fasti Online Documents & Research: 97 http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2007-96.pdf
• D.Booms, F.Candilio, A. Di Miceli, C. Fenwick, E. Fentress, C. Goodson, M. McNamee , S. Privitera, R. Ricciardi. "Excavations at Villa Magna 2008". FOLD&R: 126.http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2008-126.pdf
• E. Fentress, C. Goodson, M. Maiuro. 2009. "Excavations at Villa Magna 2009". FOLD&R: 169.http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2009-169.pdf
• E. Fentress, C. Goodson, M. Maiuro,"Excavations at Villa Magna 2010". FOLD&R: 207. http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2010-207.pdf